Philippines unemployment rate falls back to pre-pandemic level in October-Xinhua

Philippines unemployment rate falls back to pre-pandemic level in October

Source: Xinhua| 2022-12-07 13:16:00|Editor: huaxia

MANILA, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of unemployed Filipinos fell to 2.24 million in October, seeing its unemployment rate decline to 4.5 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Wednesday.

"We are back to the 2019 level. The last time we experienced this level was in October 2019, wherein we also had an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent," PSA head Dennis Mapa told a news conference.

Mapa said the number of jobless people in October declined by 1.26 million from the 3.5-million unemployed reported in October 2021, and lowered by 256,000 compared to the 2.5-million unemployed in September this year.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the Philippines continues to sustain an upbeat labor market, leading toward a robust economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Balisacan said the majority of the increase in employment came from the services and industry sectors.

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